Irresistible (2020)

Political comedies are hard. They often either hit or miss. Part of the problem is finding the balance between not being too on the nose without being too esoteric. This appears to be a hard target to hit. if there is anyone who one would think would be able to walk this fine line it would be a very funny and smart creator who has spent decades examining and skewering the American political process. But despite what John Stewart brings to this project, Irresistible does not appear to hit the target.

He packs his movie with a great cast. Steve Carell and Rose Byrne both have the comedic and dramatic chops to pull off what this requires, as does the rest of the strong cast. It just never feels like the cast has the meat to do what they could do with a better film. There are funny people but the jokes here rarely generate more than a smile, let alone a full on laugh. Their arcs are rather streamlined leading to very little and an anti-climactic ending which feels like it's more interested in its "gotcha" moment then in telling a satisfying story or making a real comment on how the political sausage is made.

So much of Irresistible feels like low hanging fruit. The characters fall into cliched archetypes and the plot feels simplistic and obvious. Perhaps this is because the film wants to do this bait and switch at the end and upon pulling that off it just ends without really looking into any ramifications of what it's getting at. But even just on the larger scale, the whole idea of how the political structure is what screws up democracy feels little elementary. This sort of argument absolves voters and participants in the system of their own responsibility but it feels nice. It feels like our countries suck because of forces beyond our control and if the system just worked better, we'd all create a better government. Sorry but I call BS on that.

Perhaps what I expected from a political comedy from John Stewart was a biting, sharp critique of American politics and instead I got a charming little rom-com-ish inspirational comedy. And as that it works. As I said the jokes never got me laughing out loud but they're not clunkers. There is a rather satisfying rebuke of casting older male leads with younger female ones which starts out satisfying but then the film wants to hit us over the head with it. Carrell is as funny as he often can be, perhaps not his best but still he's funny enough to carry the film. As a pleasant little diversion perhaps Irresistible works, even with its rather abrupt end and the absurdist final scene. But honestly pleasant little diversion isn't what I had hoped for.

Irresistible
Starring: Steve Carell, Rose Byrne, Chris Cooper, Mackenzie Davis, Topher Grace, Natasha Lyonne, Debra Messing, Will Sasso
Writer/Director: John Stewart